Summer 2017 in Review

Well, it’s been a heck of a year so far. And despite the ongoing real-world horror show around us, I personally can’t complain. Turns out I deal with this stuff by getting busy.

“Postcards from Natalie“, which appeared in The Dark over a year ago now, snagged the Shirley Jackson Award in the short story category. Jackson’s long been a favorite of mine and the nominees for this award are always extremely competitive, so winning was no end exciting. If you’d like to see me make a shaky and undrafted speech, there’s video here.

My nonfiction also came in for a nod – this one from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. The CDS was kind enough to select “The Wrong Place”, the opening section of my book project THE CITY AND THE SKY, for the 2017 Documentary Essay Prize. The prize is only given to a writer once every two years, so it felt twice as good!

September may be fall for those on the academic calendar, but it sure feels like summer here in Astoria so I’ll add a couple more bits of good news. My flash-length urban nature essay “Practical Augury” is now available at Tributaries, The Fourth River‘s online periodical. And my widely-ignored 2013 story “Bad Penny” is reprinted in this month’s Apex Magazine, having become tragically topical again after the events in Charlottesville, VA.